Arie van’t Riet’s X-ray Photography Examines Nature

Physicist Arie Van’t Riet used his knowledge of radiation to launch a photography series that literally looks deep into the beauty of nature. The artist uses an X-ray camera to capture the skeletal underpinnings of animals and the delicate fibers of flowers and plants. Though they may look like what a superhero with X-ray vision would see on a nature hike, the compositions are staged (using animals killed in traffic accidents and recently deceased pets of friends, so as not to harm live animals with radiation) in van’t Riet’s studio and photographed through an analog process that uses different intensities of X-rays. Color is added digitally in Photoshop. Van’t Riet gave a TED Talk about his process and future ambitions for the project. Watch the video and see some of his artworks below.